The Great Train Adventure

Knowing we were going to Ryan's graduation, we tacked a visit to Harvey's parents onto the front part of our vacation. When we left Northern California after the death of my parents, we left behind a car that I had inherited from them. (Don't get too excited, it's just a Buick.) We decided to take the train down so we could pick it up, then drive it down to San Francisco, then back home.

We traveled by train often when we were in Europe, and even though the trip was expected to be long (12 hours), we brought books and other things to keep us occupied. Plus, I was looking forward to the scenery.

All went well until we reached Albany, OR. Here we made a stop to pick up people, but found out a freight train had a couple of derailed cars ahead of us. We were going to have to wait until the cars were removed (and, it turned out, the track straightened out). Well, we sat there a good long time (about 12 hours). We understood it was no fault of our train company, so we weren't angry (though some people sure were); but frustrated? You bet. At least we didn't have some sort of connecting service we were going to miss.

Probably the most frustrating was the train company's inability to PICK UP THE INTERCOM AND KEEP US INFORMED! People were milling around at the station, smoking cigarettes, etc., and that's where the train staff would make announcements. Those of us preferring to mainly stay inside the train were kept in the dark until our fellow car-mates would come update us.

So instead of arriving in Klamath Falls, OR at 10 pm, we arrived at 10 am the next morning! Oh well, it was a beautiful day, and at least it wasn't OUR train that derailed!

Here's a picture of us on the train . . . before we'd sat for 12 hours. :{